A new “Transgender Toolkit” recently unveiled by the Minnesota Department of Education suggests schools should segregate students who are uncomfortable with sharing bathrooms and locker rooms with their transgender classmates.

In essence, state officials are encouraging schools to open school locker, shower, and bathroom facilities to students based on their “gender identity” so transgender students don’t feel uncomfortable with the traditional male-female situation. And those who might be uncomfortable undressing alongside their transgender classmates can find somewhere else to do their business, according to the “Toolkit for Ensuring Safe and Supportive Schools for Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students.”

“Privacy objections raised by a student in interacting with a transgender or gender nonconforming student may be addressed by segregating the student raising the objection provided that the action of the school officials does not result in stigmatizing the transgender and gender nonconforming student,” the Toolkit reads.

The 10-page document points to the supposedly harsh school environment transgender students face, and cites a study by the National Center for Transgender Equality that alleges more than three-quarters of transgender students are harassed sometime in their K-12 school career.

It goes on to cite Obama-era directives about transgender school policies, as well as state laws that prohibit gender based harassment, and offers many ways schools, parents and others can help transgender students feel special.

“Schools should not assume a student’s name or pronoun. School officials should ask the student and use the requested name and pronouns. Students need not provide schools with legal documents to correct their first name or gender within their school records,” according to the Toolkit.

“Teachers could address students as ‘students’ and ‘scholars’ to be inclusive as opposed to ‘boys and girls,’” it reads.

A d v e r t i s e m e n t

The nonbinding guidance also suggests officials allow transgender students to participate in activities and athletics “in a manner consistent with their gender identity,” and institute genderless dress codes.

“In an effort for inclusivity, schools may wish to consider revisiting existing traditions or establishing new traditions. For example, instead of electing a homecoming king and homecoming queen, some schools have chosen to nominate ‘prom ambassadors,’ ‘homecoming court’ or ‘homecoming royalty,’” state officials wrote. “At the University of Minnesota, for example, the titles of homecoming king and queen have been replaced with the title ‘Homecoming Royalty’ and students selected as royalty will now be called ‘royals.’”

Progressives have long argued that restricting school bathrooms to the traditional categories of male and female is a kind of segregation, walling off transgender and gender nonconforming students from facilities that best correspond to their preferred genders (as opposed to those that simply align with their biological sex). In doing so, these activists seek to confer normality on the ‘differently’ gendered, while subtly suggesting that the real confusion and bigotry belongs with those who identify along traditional gender lines.

As we have seen over the years with issues of homosexual activism, it is inevitable that progressive activists will continue to redefine traditional gender categories to the point that noncompliance with progressive positions and policies constitutes segregation and discrimination. And the Minnesota “toolkit” perfectly illustrates the method in action.